Sarah Youssef (’25) sat in her third-period class on a typical Tuesday last year. It was SSH in her Broadcast Journalism class, and her teacher put on the news as the rest of her classmates settled down. What they were watching that day was coverage of something Youssef had seen many, many times: gun violence.
Listening to these many tragic stories about gun violence sparked a passion in Youssef, one that would lead her to create an award-winning documentary on the issue.
Youssef’s documentary on gun violence, Run, Hide, Fight, aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) NewsHour, Oct. 9, 2024. It brought awareness to the subject by showcasing 14 different student journalists, including Youssef, and victims’ stories about gun violence.
Run, Hide, Fight more recently received gold for the 5th Annual Anthem Award in the Health: Documentary or Film category for 2025, Nov. 18.
Youssef said that prior to creating the documentary, about 60% of the time she watched the news in class, it covered gun violence.
“The more often I would see [gun violence], the more it would impact me,” she said. “This is ridiculous. It’s insane that our generation has to face this crisis as much as we are.”
Youssef said she became interested in the subject after watching the tragedies caused by gun violence impact kids and teenagers like herself. Their experiences inspired her to get involved and share the voices of the victims.
“I was motivated to [make this documentary] because I felt a lot of anger that so many little kids were being shot and killed,” she said. “School is supposed to be a safe place.”
Previously, Youssef worked with the PBS on another documentary about female football players during a summer program. She reached out to them once again with the hope of spreading awareness about gun violence.
After gaining their support, she and the rest of the team brought together by PBS gathered data and reached out to student journalists around the country. PBS asked Youssef to be the host of the documentary, meaning she would appear on-screen to introduce new topics and guide the viewer throughout the film.
Each of the 14 student journalists researched gun violence in their own communities, interviewing victims and sending those clips to the producers at PBS to be edited into the final documentary.
Youssef said that she and her team decided to use recordings of real people’s experiences and stories to help viewers connect with the genuine voices of the victims.
“I’m telling their story and showing what they’ve gone through in the most accurate way possible so that people would understand,” Youssef said. “One of the main reasons that we decided to have as many stories as we did was because we believed that stories speak a lot louder than just facts and statistics, and we wanted those people to feel like they had a voice.”
When Youssef listened to all these stories and the damage gun violence caused, it strengthened her drive to expand awareness and spark change.
“I know these people’s stories really well,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that other people were hearing what I was hearing, because, if it’s impacting me this way, [it will] hopefully impact others in a similar way.”
When it came to her own parts as the host, Youssef first had to finalize and perfect her script as the host, going back and forth with PBS many times to confirm its accuracy. Then, she worked with the Broadcast Journalism teacher Robert Casas to properly record these sections.
Even with so much support, Youssef encountered a couple roadblocks while recording. At first, they shot her scenes outside, recording four or five times in four different locations. However, the sound of the wind and many passing planes interrupted the recording too often, so they decided to move inside the classroom.
There, it was pretty much smooth sailing until the teleprompter, a device that displays the script while recording, suddenly broke. So, Youssef had to memorize a large portion of her script.
However, all the hard work she and her team put in proved worth it once they received the award.
“Our production reached out to everyone, and we were all super happy,” Youssef said. “This really wasn’t one person who, you know, led the whole thing. It was a collective effort of mostly students.”
For Youssef, the award meant that her goal of bringing awareness to gun violence and sharing the voice of students was achieved.
“I felt empowered when I heard that [we had won the award],” Youssef said. “I was just super grateful that we’ve been able to reach that many milestones with views, screenings, and now, awards. It was super cool, and I was honored to be a part of a project that won it.”
